Very premature babies at risk of learning difficulties

11/03/2009

Scientists have found that babies who are born extremely prematurely are at high risk of performing poorly at school and having special educational needs at the age of 11.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham are carrying out a Medical Research Council-funded study called EPICure, designed to find out the chances of survival and future health of all babies born in the UK and Ireland before 26 weeks during 1995.

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The researchers followed up 219 of these children and compared them with 153 classmates who were born at full-term.

Their analysis reveals that 13 per cent of premature survivors need full-time specialist education, while 57 per cent of those attending mainstream schools need additional resources to cope with academic or behavioural problems.

Dr Samantha Johnson, research psychologist at the University of Nottingham, said that the findings 'highlight the kinds of difficulties extremely preterm children are likely to face at school'.

'These children had poorer performance than their classmates across all national curriculum subjects, with the most prominent difficulties in maths, and around two thirds had some degree of special educational needs,' she revealed.

Dr Johnson suggested that extremely premature children may benefit from delaying entry to full-time school.

However, a spokeswoman for the premature baby charity Bliss told the BBC that there have been 'great improvements' in neonatal care and 'better outcomes' for premature babies since the data were collected 14 years ago.

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